Sweet and Steady 2019

I’d say that 2019 has been a sweet and steady year for me and our family. Compared to 2018 which had distinct highs and lows, this year has been very balanced and stable, peppered with many lovely blessings and a number of lessons in all facets of our lives.❤️

The Kids 

My husband and I will always consider ourselves rich because the kids are our life’s treasures.💎 And this year, perhaps we have become a little more well-heeled because our treasures have grown bigger and older!

Lia has been healthier this year compared to when she was younger, though her frame has remained payatot, err, slim.😂 Hehe. She has also learned to read for real, she can now read short stories on her own. As we have always observed, her language and reading skills are advanced and we are very happy. Her writing and interpersonal skills (with new faces) are a different story though. Hehe. We’ll get to that soon. It's this year that she rode a horse for the first time; she  also bravely did the zipline for the first time, too. We’re very proud of our firstborn! 

Rocco, our dear boy, has grown a lot. We celebrated his first birthday, and it was a blast! He has unlocked many milestones, too! Had his first teeth, first haircut, first steps. Now, he can already walk albeit wobbly, and he is already able to say some words such as ate, mom, dada, milk, hi, peppa, and papa, in between his gibberish. He can sing, too! His favorite song is "Johnny, Jonny, Yes Papa?" but he's only able to sing the part with papa and hahaha.😂  We're thankful that our Rocco is very healthy and strong, and he’s always happy and smiling. 

Our Marriage

Rolly and I are stronger than ever.💕 This year, we celebrated our 7th year by visiting Japan. We spent five days (can’t stay any longer because of the kids) going around Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto, and we had a very wonderful time. We will definitely go back!

At Universal Studios in Osaka

The famous Fushimi Inari shrine

Playing dressup =D

It was July of this year that we were able to give our first weekend as speakers for Worldwide Marriage Encounter. It was a blissful experience as we shared our own stories to other couples whom we met for the first time. I hope we were able to somehow speak to their hearts in the same way that our lives were touched when we attended our first Marriage Encounter weekend as participants. This has now become our advocacy as a couple – to proclaim the value of Marriage in the church and in the world, and the importance of putting this sacrament as a priority for husband and wife. 

Work 

This year, I celebrated my 10th year at ISCI and I think anyone would consider that a feat. A decade, imagine?🥳 This year also, our team has grown and I am very happy with the newest addition (ehem ehem, you might be reading this Dianne haha). Things are looking up at my second home!

Personal Triumphs 

This year, I was able to beat the weighing scale, yay! Before Rocco, I weighed 116lbs, and six days after I gave birth, I was 141lbs heavy. I was able to shed the pounds little by little every day, until I was back to 99lbs in May, same weight I had before getting married. As of this writing, I am 103lbs heavy, thanks to all the food I have been eating this holiday season. Hehe. Yamu na. 🐽

It’s in 2019 that I have discovered a new love. Love for plants.🌱 I never realized how plants could make one happy until this year. This is not to say that I’m very good with greens. In fact, many plants have already died on me (huhu does that make me a murderer?), but I keep on trying. Or at least I have learned to choose plants that will thrive given the conditions at home, with the lighting and all.

I also learned makeup this year!💄 Thanks to our company's "Passion Project," I got to choose something I wanted to enroll in courtesy of the office, and I ended up picking the Basic Makeup course at the School of Fashion and the Arts (SoFa). I would still not consider myself a makeup junkie, but at least I already know the basics which are very handy when I need to put some color on my face.

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As to life lessons, these are top of mind in 2019:

• Life is a gift and every breath is a blessing.🎁 If we only realize this, we would spend every moment being thankful, uncomplaining. And the fact is, it is short. Let’s live it fully, with the people we love, cherishing every day moments. We never know how much time we have left.  And also, one’s greatest wealth is health. We can’t take it for granted. OA na kung OA, but if something feels amiss physically (or even mentally), go to the doctor and have it checked. Especially for parents with young kids, we owe it to our children to stay healthy and strong.

• Don’t let your ice cream melt while you’re counting somebody else’s sprinkles.🍦 It’s a no-no to compare your life to others, that's one key to happiness. I heard this from one of my colleagues and realized how true it is. Comparison is the thief of joy. Masaya na maging tunay na masaya para sa iba.  And I thought, kaya din pala palagi akong masaya. Hehe. 

• Staying connected to people from my past is a happiness booster.😊  In each stage of life, I've had great friends and great experiences, but when I've moved to the next stage, I've found it difficult to stay connected to those people. This year, however, I've started to rebuild old friendships that have been collecting dust for quite a while, and it has brought me a different kind of joy.  Keeping old ties strong matters. As a preschool song goes, "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold."

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I can go on and on but these things top my list for 2019. What can I say, but thank you Lord for another great year.🎉 Looking forward to more chapters that will unfold in 2020!

Psalm 28:7: 

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.

My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him."